Also 8 wigg. [Shortened form of PERIWIG, as winkle of periwinkle.]
1. An artificial covering of hair for the head, worn to conceal baldness or to cover the inadequacy of the natural hair, as a part of professional, ceremonial, or formerly of fashionable, costume (as still by judges and barristers, formerly also by bishops and other clergymen), or as a disguise (as by actors on the stage): = PERIWIG 1, PERUKE 2. (See also BAG-WIG, bob-wig (BOB sb.1 4 b), FULL-BOTTOMED wig, TIE-WIG.)
1675. Char. Town-Gallant, 4. He … looks down with Contempt on every body, whose Wig is not right Flaxen.
a. 1700. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, Bar-wig, between a bob and a long one.
1710. Swift, City-Shower, 12. Triumphant Tories, and desponding Whigs, Forget their feuds, and join to save their wigs.
1716. Gay, Trivia, III. 55. Nor is thy Flaxen Wigg with Safety worn.
1782. Cowper, John Gilpin, 98. Away went Gilpin, neck or nought, Away went hat and wig!
1835. Gladstone, in Morley Life (1903), I. 127. The disappearance of the bishops’ wigs, which he said had done more harm to the church than anything else!
1845. J. T. Smith, Bk. for Rainy Day, 94. He was a spare man, and wore a powdered club-wig, similar to that worn by Tom Davies, the bookseller and biographer of Garrick.
1853. Dickens, Bleak Ho., i. There is the registrar below the Judge, in wig and gown.
1879. Browning, Ned Bratts, 44. Serjeant Postlethwayte—Dashing the wig oblique as he mopped his oily pate.
b. Phrases. Dash my wig(s (colloq.), a mild imprecation (see DASH v.1 11). My wig(s! (colloq.) a meaningless expression of surprise, etc. Wigs on the green, a colloquial expression (orig. Irish) for coming to blows or sharp altercation (wigs being liable to fall or be pulled off in a fray).
1797. Mrs. M. Robinson, Walsingham, IV. 75. Dash my wig, if Ainsforth is not as well-looking as your finical Welsh baronet.
1812. Dash my wigs [see DASH v.1 11].
1856. Chamb. Jrnl., 1 March, 139/1. If a quarrel is foreseen as a probable contingency, it is predicted that ‘there’ll be wigs on the green.’
1871. Hoppe, Engl.-Deutsch. Suppl. Lex., Wig, s. my wigs!
1891. Morris, in Mackail, Life (1899), II. 257. I am writing a short narrative poem. My wig! but it is garrulous.
1903. Sir M. G. Gerard, Leaves fr. Diaries, i. 22. Whenever they saw them advancing, they felt there would be wigs on the green.
c. Jocularly applied to a (natural) head of hair, esp. of a child; hence curly-wig, a jocular appellation for a child with curly hair.
d. transf.
1823. Cobbett, Rur. Rides (1885), I. 226. Those white, curled clouds, that we call Judges’ Wigs.
1843. Tait’s Edin. Mag., X. 444. Plunging his nose amidst such an enormous wig of yeast as o’ertopped his cannikin.
2. transf. A person who wears a wig (professionally); a dignitary. colloq. (Cf. BIGWIG.)
1828. Sporting Mag. (N.S.), XXI. 323. The horrid systematic opposition to hunting, which has justly raised so great odium against the Wigs.
1828. Scott, Jrnl., 18 April (1891), 576. Dined with the Dean of Chester … There were the amiable Bishop of London,… Bishop of Llandaff, the Dean of St. Paul’s, and other dignitaries…. It was a very pleasant day—the wigs against the wits for a guinea in point of conversation.
1858. Carlyle, Fredk. Gt., IX. iv. II. 436. So the heirship fell to us, as the biggest wig in the most benighted Chancery would have to grant.
3. Technical name for the coarse hair on the shoulders of a full-grown male fur-seal, and hence for the seal itself when bearing this.
1830. N. Dana, Mariner’s Sk., 145 (Thornton). These old wigs are more than twice as large as the female seal.
1832. C. M. Goodridge, Voy. S. Seas, 29. The dog seals are named by South Seamen Wigs.
1883. Q. Rev., Oct., 449. At five years … what is called the ‘wig’—a mass of coarse hair on the shoulders—appears,… so that it does not pay to kill an animal of this age.
1910. Encycl. Brit., XI. 352/2. The largest skins, known in the trade as ‘wigs,’ which range up to 8 ft. in length, are uneven and weak in the fur.
4. [Cf. WIG v.2 2.] A severe rebuke or scolding, ? orig. from a ‘bigwig’; an act of WIGGING. slang or colloq.
1804. Sir J. Malcolm, in Life (1856), I. 267. If you got a private wig about Gwalior, I shall get a dozen.
1813. Moore, Twopenny Post Bag, ii. 52. Else, though the Pr——e be long in rigging, ’Twould take, at least, a fortnight’s wigging—Two wigs to every paragraph—Before he well could get through half.
1852. Doveton, Burmese War, iii. 76. At the risk of a wig in G.O., or even a court-martial, with all its terrors.
1903. Daily Chron., 21 Nov., 3/3. As often as not a ‘wig’ ended by the offer of a cheroot.
5. attrib. and Comb., as wig-box, -dresser, -maker, -making, -puffer, -tie, -wearer, -wearing, -weaver, -weaving; wig-like adj.; wig-block, a rounded block for placing a wig upon when being made or not in use; wig-tail, (a) a name for a tropic-bird, from its long tail-feathers; (b) the tail of a wig; wig-sumach, -tree, a name for the Venetian sumach (Rhus Cotinus), from its hairy inflorescence.
a. 1745. Swift, Country Life, 123. Nim lost his *wig-block, Dan his jordan.
1828. Miss Mitford, Village, Ser. III. Country Barber. He … lived alone … with no other companions than his wig-blocks and a tame starling.
1713. Addison, Guardian, No. 145, ¶ 4. I take the Liberty of enclosing it to you in my *Wig-Box.
1751. Affecting Narr. H.M.S. Wager, 118. These odd Creatures [sc. armadillos] are cased with a covering in Shape somewhat … resembling that of a travelling Wig Box.
1850. Thackeray, Pendennis, lii[i]. Scarce anything told of the lawyer but the wig-box beside the Venus upon the middle shelf of the bookcase.
1828. Miss Mitford, Village, Ser. III. Country Barber. Appointed his shaver, *wig-dresser, and wig-maker.
1853. Humphreys, Coin-coll. Man., I. xii. 141. Rows of stiff *wiglike curls.
1755. Johnson, Perukemaker,… a *wigmaker.
1828. [see wig-dresser].
1742. Richardson, Pamela (1785), IV. 247. [He] should keep no Company, but that of Tailors, *Wig-puffers, and Milleners.
1857. Chambers’ Encycl., IX. 203/2. Venetian S[umach] … known also as *Wig S[umach] or *Wig Tree.
1888. Amer. Natur., Oct., 862. The *wig-tail, a white bird about the size of a pigeon, having two long, flexible, streamer-like tail feathers.
1905. A. T. Sheppard, Red Cravat, III. ii. 242. The powdered wig-tail poked out truculently above the red collar.
1878. Browning, Poets of Croisic, cxxxviii. Flounce Of *wig-ties and of coat-tails.
1852. S. R. Maitland, Eight Ess., 236. The cap was only such an one as *wig-wearers were wont to use.
1784. Cowper, Task, IV. 543. Her head … Indebted to some smart *wig-weaver’s hand For more than half the tresses it sustains.
1828. Miss Mitford, Village, Ser. III. Country Barber. His dexterity in *wig-weaving.
Hence (chiefly nonce-wds.) Wigdom, judges or lawyers as a body; Wigful, as much as fills a wig; Wiggish a., having the character of a wig (whence Wiggishness); Wiggism, the practice of wearing wigs; Wigless a., destitute of a wig, not wearing a wig; Wiglet, a little wig; Wiglomeration [after conglomeration], humorously for ‘ceremonious fuss’ (in legal proceedings).
1886. Illustr. Lond. News, 27 Nov., 588/3. *‘Wigdom,’ preparing for its most dignified exhibition on the Bench of the High Court of Justice.
1836. E. Howard, R. Reefer, vii. I was told to … get a *wigful of potatoes…, the … pedagogue coolly taking off his wig.
1866. Trollope, Claverings, iii. An effort … to hide the *wiggishness of his wigs.
1821. New Monthly Mag., I. 573. The history of *wiggism in this country … from its origin down to its decline and fall. Ibid. (1825), XIV. 256.
1799. E. Du Bois, Piece Fam. Biog., I. 224. Thrusting his *wigless head out of the window.
1813. Colman, Br. Grins, Vagaries Vind., xlix. Wigless, with his cassock torn.
1905. Calthrop, Engl. Costume, III. 133. In the days when to be wigless was to be undressed.
1831. Examiner, 660/1. Disarray’d and bare Of cassock, shovel-hat, and *wiglet fair.
1853. Dickens, Bleak Ho., viii. He is a ward in Chancery … The whole thing will be vastly ceremonious, wordy, unsatisfactory, and expensive, and I call it, in general, *Wiglomeration.
